BRZRKR writer Matt Kindt has teamed up with a surprising collaborator for new murder mystery comic Gilt Frame: his mom

Matt Kindt has built an enviable reputation with comics like Mind MGMT and Dept. H, not to mention his best-selling collaboration with Keanu Reeves, BRZRKR. Now he has joined forces with a new and somewhat surprising collaborator: his mother. 

Matt and Margie Kraft Kindt have teamed up for Gilt Frame, described as “an eccentric and electrifying crime thriller starring the most unlikely detective duo in the history of murder mysteries.” The three-issue whodunnit will be written by the two Kindts, with Matt also serving as the series’ artist. It will be published through Flux House and Dark Horse Comics. 

You can check out the covers for each of the three issues in the gallery below.

In terms of plot, Gilt Frame is said to be a globe-trotting mystery taking place in locations as diverse as Paris, Hawaii, and Montenegro. It follows 20-something Sam and his crime-solving Aunt Merry. The duo have form for solving mysteries, but their latest adventure in France is “cut short when they stumble upon a murder scene so bizarre that only a raging psychopath could have produced it.” 

“Although it is a privilege and thrill to collaborate with someone of Matthew’s caliber and of his generation, the real joy and value is personal,” said Margie Kraft Kindt in a statement. “What a bonus at this time of life, the gift and pleasure of so many hours and days in the company of a grown-up son, sitting across from each other at our partner table, settling into our chairs as we brainstorm plot twists.”

Check out some finished pages from the first issue in the gallery below.

Margie Kraft Kindt went onto describe the unusual way that the duo worked on the book. “Each of us takes on the roles of our characters. I develop the energetic persona of the star of Gilt Frame, the take-charge Meredith Pearson – Aunt Merry to her beloved nephew and best buddy, Sammy – while Matt shoots out dialogue for him. We toss around how they would play off each other – so completely immersed in the exhilarating work we are both passionate about, that every once in a while, we stop and ask each other, ‘Are you getting this down?'”

“Sam, the young nephew in Gilt Frame, is really the star of the show here,” said Matt Kindt. “The voice of reason who generously gives old Aunt Merry just enough screen time not to embarrass herself. He’s always looking out for her as they solve a real puzzle of a murder. It’s not a locked room murder mystery. It’s more of an unlocked…UNHINGED murder mystery.”

“While we were working on this book it brought back memories of me when I was 10 or so…and Mom constructing pretend ‘crime scenes’ at home for me to solve,” said Matt Kindt. “Follow the fake bloody footprints to figure out what happened. Pay attention to the broken clock. Why is that door open? That childhood memory actually explains a lot. Very formative. So of course it only makes sense for us to build another crime scene together. Brings me back to my roots and to what writing has always been for me – play. We’re having fun.”

Gilt Frame #1 is published by Dark Horse Comics and Flux House on August 7.

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